This Is What Passes for Elections in Cuba

Luis Martínez-Fernández
Fri, 02 Dec 2022 21:00:00 -0800
Opinion

On Sunday Nov. 27, 5.7 million Cuban citizens exercised their constitutional right to vote, but a substantial percentage (31.5) of registered voters decided to stay home that day. This was in sharp contrast with previous elections' voter participation rates, which have historically hovered above 90%. In the recent past, however, we have seen a trend toward higher abstention rates (14% in the 2017 municipal elections) and (25% in September's "Family Code" referendum).

Despite government and state media spin — President Miguel Diaz-Canel applauding the official voting rates and results as signs of social and political stability — the fact that 2.6 million Cubans chose not to vote in these municipal elections signals massive and growing popular rejection of the regime and its political leaders. Moreover, approximately 11% of the ballots (627,000) were either left blank or spoiled. That over 5 million did cast ballots should not be read as their support for the communist regime.

ANATOMY OF CUBA'S ELECTORAL SYSTEM
Updated: Sat Dec 03, 2022

On Sunday Nov. 27, 5.7 million Cuban citizens exercised their constitutional right to vote, but a substantial percentage (31.5) of registered voters decided to stay home that day. This was in sharp contrast with previous elections' voter participation rates, which have historically hovered above 90%. In the recent past, however, we have seen a trend toward higher abstention rates (14% in the 2017 municipal elections) and (25% in September's "Family Code" referendum).

Despite government and state media spin — President Miguel Diaz-Canel applauding the official voting rates and results as signs of social and political stability — the fact that 2.6 million Cubans chose not to vote in these municipal elections signals massive and growing popular rejection of the regime and its political leaders. Moreover, approximately 11% of the ballots (627,000) were either left blank or spoiled. That over 5 million did cast ballots should not be read as their support for the communist regime.

ANATOMY OF CUBA'S ELECTORAL SYSTEM

While the Cuban state and its supporters around the world claim, with a straight face, that Cuba is a democratic nation and a model of participatory governance, they are anything but that.

What transpired last Sunday is the first part of a Byzantine, multistage electoral process that checks a few but certainly not the majority of boxes required by the commonly accepted definitions of democratic elections:

[x] One secret ballot for each registered voter.

[ ] Multipartidism or bipartidism.

[ ] Free and fair competition among different candidates who represent diverse ideas and policies.

[ ] Absence of candidate and voter intimidation.

[ ] Open public campaigns with candidates having access to the media.

[x] Clean and accurate counting of ballots.

The Cuban state power structure is a pyramid — the addition of the term "scheme" is not inappropriate — that begins at the mass level with 8.3 million registered voters and goes all the way up to the presidency.

Unlike some countries like Mexico, Argentina and Australia where voting is mandatory, in some instances with penalties for abstainers, Cuban citizens are not compelled to cast ballots. There are, however, soft forms of coercion such as social pressures to participate; and this time around, the state engaged in a massive media campaign encouraging high voter turnout. While the opposition group Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CDTC) had a few municipal-level candidates of its own, it advocated voter abstention but lacked access to TV, radio, newspapers and other media, all monopolized by the state.

Cuban voters were presented with the option of two (in some instances three) candidates for municipal delegates or councilors, a total of 26,746 individuals (nominated by show of hands in neighborhood level meetings) running for 12,427 slots. According to CDTC Vice President Manuel Cuesta the few opposition candidates with the best chances of being elected were harassed and intimidated out of the process. In its characteristic cynicism and shallowness of thinking, the state branded opposition candidates as "mercenaries."

Sunday's voting marked the last opportunity for common citizens to participate in Cuba's convoluted and undemocratic electoral process. They have now yielded political power to around 12,500 delegates who on Dec. 17 will have the opportunity to vote for half of all (National Candidature Commission accepted) nominated members of the National Assembly, a body that currently includes 605 individuals, slated to be reduced to 474 after the 2023 elections. The other half are elected by leaders of non-independent communist organizations such as trade unions, student and women's organizations, etc. from a list of candidates undemocratically nominated by the Commission.

After all the trouble and undemocratic machinations to elect the members of the National Assembly, one would think that it is a powerful legislative body, but it is not: It's limited to passing legislation only during two brief annual sessions. The authority to legislate during the rest of the year falls on the 31-member Council of State, elected by the National Assembly. It also has the power to elect from "among" one single candidate (Diaz-Canel) Cuba's president, who in 2019 received the votes of 579 out of 580 National Assembly members who participated in the proceedings. He is up for "reelection" in March 2023. Unless the unimaginable happens, he will remain in power until 2028.

There is a wise Spanish proverb: "El hombre propone y Dios dispone" (man proposes and God disposes).